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Raspberries—Starting Over

Amid guitars, keyboards and an array of other music equipment, the drum kit says it all. Emblazoned with the logo of Cleveland's long-lost Raspberries, it's a sight to warm the heart of any fan. All the same, the band's rehearsal space is downright chilly on a recent afternoon.

Wally Bryson is first on the scene. He tries to fire up the heat in the building.

"Our fans wouldn't let us die," the guitarist says. "They wouldn't give up, even when we told them point-blank: We're never going to reunite. Forget it. We hate each other."

The Raspberries headline a sold-out concert tonight at the House of Blues. It marks the first time these power-pop legends have performed in public since a 1973 appearance on The Mike Douglas Show.

Drummer Jim Bonfanti and bassist Dave Smalley are next to arrive at the secret location in suburban Cleveland where the Raspberries have been practicing since mid-September.

An unshaven Eric Carmen breezes in last, exuding bonhomie.

"Hey, buddy, how's it going?" he asks Bryson.

The reunion show sold out in a flash, with more than 1,000 tickets snatched up in less than 15 minutes.

"Most of our friends couldn't get tickets," says Carmen, the quartet's singer-guitarist-keyboardist. He and Bonfanti started the band in 1970. They do most of the talking during the interview. House of Blues has booked another Raspberries concert for New Year's Eve. Tickets go on sale Saturday, Dec. 4; showtime and ticket prices had not been announced at press time.

Raspberries devotees are coming from as far away as Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, England and Canada to catch tonight's gig, Carmen says. No pressure or anything.

Carmen chuckles. "When we put this together, my goal was not to embarrass ourselves," he says. "I never dreamed it would sound as good as it does."

"Really—it's better than it ever was," Bryson says. "The four of us are much more powerful together than we are separate."

In practice sessions, they've dusted off about 30 songs, drawn from the group's four albums for Capitol Records: Raspberries (1972), Fresh (1972), Side 3 (1973) and Starting Over (1974).

The other night at the end of rehearsal, the band jammed through the Who's "I Can't Explain."

"On the record, Roger Daltrey does two little ad-libs—a low one and a high one—going into a guitar solo," Carmen says. "Instinctively, Wally sang the low one and I sang the high one…We know each other's moves."

Or as Bryson puts it: "We're talking the same language."

The seed for the reunion was planted in June when Bonfanti got a phone call from House of Blues talent buyer Anthony Nicolaidis, who wanted to book the Raspberries as part of the club's grand opening.

In the background, a guitar blasts the opening riff of the group's Top 5 smash "Go All the Way."

Specializing in ultracatchy pop-rock with a hard-hitting edge, the band also cracked the Top 40 in the early 1970s to the tune of "I Wanna Be With You," "Let's Pretend" and "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)."

A trio christened the Overdubs—Jennifer Lee, Paul Sidoti and Billy Sullivan—has been put together to provide backing vocals and additional accompaniment on guitars, keyboards and percussion for the reborn Raspberries.

"After I hung up the phone, I thought I should be excited," Bonfanti says. "But I was bummed out. Because as much as I wanted it to happen, as much as I thought it should happen, I just didn't think it would."

Artistic differences hastened the departure of Bonfanti and Smalley from the band in November 1973. By 1975, the Raspberries had called it quits, but not before Carmen and Bryson came to blows after a concert in Indiana.

"The last time we all played together, we were 23-year-old hotheads," Carmen says.

The others laugh.

"Whatever happened at the time was an outgrowth of our frustration," Carmen says. "We weren't making any money. We were beating our brains out on the road. And we weren't getting any help. We've all had 30-plus years to sit and think about some of the good stuff, too, as opposed to just the bad stuff."

After the Raspberries soured, Carmen embarked on a successful solo career, scoring major hits with "All by Myself," "Hungry Eyes" and "Make Me Lose Control."

Bonfanti plays in the local band Boxer.

Bryson has done stints with Tattoo and Fotomaker, among other groups. Last year, he and his son Jesse (a member of roots-rock band Rosavelt) collaborated on a CD, Dry, credited to the Bryson Group.

Smalley recently put out a solo album, Internal Monologue.

"Music is still a big part of my life, but I haven't been a performing musician for quite a while," Smalley says. He now makes his home in Tempe, Ariz., where he works as a respiratory therapist.

The other Raspberries still live in the Cleveland area. Carmen remains a professional musician, Bonfanti is an automobile broker, and Bryson is an employment specialist with the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

Bonfanti first broached the House of Blues gig with Carmen, who was open to the possibility.

"I told Jim—because he's really the glue in this band—when he talked to Wally and to Dave to tell them, 'All we want is for everybody to get up there and to have fun,'" Carmen says.

Bryson and Smalley turned out to be up for it, too.

"I had a lot of trepidation, because there are lots of painful memories," Bryson says. "But now it feels good. Maybe at this age, we realize you don't sweat the small stuff—and most of it is small stuff."

The band members are 55, to a man.

"As you get older, you start to realize you only have so much time," Bonfanti says. "We're all healthy…"

On cue, Smalley coughs loudly.

"…and we're physically able to do this," Bonfanti says.

"Besides, in five years, we'll all be 60," Carmen says.

At least they'll always be younger than the Rolling Stones.

"Right!" Carmen says. "Sixty is the new 40."

Carmen, Bryson and Bonfanti performed a medley of Beatles oldies in 1999 at a birthday party for Jane Scott, The Plain Dealer's longtime rock writer. Back then, a full-blown Raspberries reunion tour was in the works. It failed to come to fruition because promoters slashed their initial offers for the band, in light of lackluster ticket sales for other retro-rock acts on tour, Carmen says.

He went on to release a solo CD, I Was Born to Love You, and hit the road with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band.

Bryson and Smalley regrouped under the Raspberries name, issuing an EP titled Refreshed in 2000 with Scott McCarl, who had replaced Smalley in the original lineup. Carmen and Bonfanti did not take part in the project.

"It wasn't a big sore spot for anybody," Carmen says.

"We could talk about it, but we haven't," Smalley says. "We can talk about anything now. In the past, maybe we couldn't."

If all goes well tonight and New Year's Eve, the Raspberries might do a tour of other House of Blues clubs next year.

"For me, one of the best things is these four old dear friends who have this incredible history together finally get to play together again," Carmen says.

"I came to see their band when I was 17," he says, nodding toward the others. "They were the best band I'd ever seen."

Before joining the Raspberries, Bonfanti, Bryson and Smalley were in the Choir, the Cleveland group best known for "It's Cold Outside." Carmen was in another local band, Cyrus Erie.

Tonight's show will be recorded, with an eye toward possibly releasing a live album. There also is talk of a televised concert special and a tour of Japan.

While they're at it, how about a new Raspberries studio album?

"We haven't thought that far ahead," Carmen says. "For now, we just want to play these two shows. Then we can relax and say, 'So there—we did it.'"

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

Author:
John Soeder

Posted:
Nov 26 2004

Photo:
Janet Macoska

Raspberries: House of Blues

By Michael David Toth

Perhaps more directly influential on 25 years of "power pop" bands than fellow early-'70s cult luminaries Big Star and Badfinger, local boys the Raspberries have reaped a fanatical international reputation that Clevelanders may not recognize or appreciate.

Friday's first live appearance of all four original Raspberries in over three decades was one of the biggest local music events of recent memory, with an estimated half of the sold-out tickets plucked by out-of-towners from as far away as Japan.

The mostly forty/fifty-something audience was bursting with Beatlemania-worthy screams and kid-on-Christmas facial expressions. And that was even during the pre-show-hype video montage of vintage TV and Super-8 film footage. Fortunately, none of the crowd passed out or anything when the actual group appeared onstage.

The band opened with the masterpiece "I Wanna Be With You," which, along with Eric Carmen compositions like "Go All the Way" and "Tonight," typifies what most made the Raspberries so legendary: sleazy advertisements for teen sex driven by punchy guitars, irresistibly tasty melodic hooks and sweet harmonies.

Augmenting Carmen's pop genius, the set also showcased the fine songwriting contributions of other Raspberries Dave Smalley and Wally Bryson.

Surprises included two songs by pre-Raspberries band the Choir and covers of Who and Beatles tunes. The evening could have been potentially soured by Carmen's ego, notorious for 30 years running. But he actually seemed somehow humbled by the occasion, and his stage presence was rather endearing.

Any worries that the retired band may have gotten lazy and lost its original spirit or otherwise ended up stiffly professional or sterile were also unfounded, with just enough blemishes for an appropriate amount of live character. Although drummer Jim Bonfanti amusingly referred to the band as "the Elderberries," especially on their more rockin' hits, they sounded timelessly young, modern, and…well…fresh.

The evening was preserved on video for a future DVD, which will hopefully include scratch-and-sniff inserts to replicate the kooky raspberry fragrance that was ventilated throughout the venue. Plus, fans have another once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the group in-person, as tickets go on sale Saturday for a follow-up New Year's Eve show.

Cleveland Free Times | December 1, 2004

Raspberries Get Together

By Greg Prato

The original lineup of Seventies power pop band the Raspberries—singer Eric Carmen, guitarist Wally Bryson, bassist David Smalley and drummer Jim Bonfanti—are set to reunite for a handful of live gigs and, quite possibly, a full tour in 2005.

Before their 1975 split, the Raspberries scored a number of sizeable hits with their Beatles-meet-the-Who sound, including "Go All the Way," "I Wanna Be With You" and "Overnight Sensation." And while Carmen made his mark as a solo artist in the ensuing years ("All By Myself," "Hungry Eyes"), the Raspberries' shadow continued to loom large. So large that Carmen became squeamish about reuniting.

"Over thirty-plus years, a certain myth has grown up around the band. And the last thing I ever wanted to do was put us on a stage somewhere, in less than the best circumstances, and pop the bubble, have the fans come in and say, 'Gee, they weren't that good,'" admits Carmen. "It's your responsibility to give them something to be excited about.

"But it went absolutely beautifully," says Carmen of the group's experimental reunion gig at Cleveland's House of Blues the day after Thanksgiving. "We sold the date out in about four minutes, and everybody who was there had a phenomenal time." The show was such a success that the Raspberries decided to return for a New Year's set tomorrow night.

It was actually at another branch of the House of Blues chain that Carmen first gathered up the courage to consider playing with his former band—while he was at the Los Angeles venue touring with Ringo Starr's Band in 2000.

"The stages are all good, the house sound system is good, the house lighting system is good," he exclaims. "And because of those things, it eliminated a lot of the problems that I would have associated with putting the Raspberries reunion together. So we began talking about it."

Carmen was also particularly taken with Cleveland's talent buyer, Anthony Nicolaidis. "He was excited to try and do something that was very special," explains Carmen, who was then inspired to reach out to the other Raspberries members.

As far as the set list, Carmen and company decided to play the classics—from both the Raspberries repertoire and others. "We threw in a peppering of things we used to play before we recorded our own stuff," he says. "We threw in a few Beatles songs, 'I Can't Explain' by the Who, 'Baby's in Black'—I loved the bridge of that song, so we said, 'Let's do that one just because we want to.'" Other covers in the set include the Searchers' "Needles and Pins" (off the first LP Carmen ever bought) and Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold on Me."

While only two more shows are confirmed at the moment, more dates should follow, with talk of a House of Blues club tour. No word yet of a new Raspberries album.

"We initially said, 'Let's just get these first two shows under our belt here, and then we'll go on and discuss what we should do from here,'" says Carmen. "I think we'll just see how this all flies."